Back to Exploring “My Territory” on Foot

And just what do I consider my territory? Just about anyplace within a half hour drive of my Templeton home where I can get out and walk. Since January 5 of this year, that has included Halter Ranch, the exteriors of Shale Oak and Red Soles Wineries on Oakdale Road, a residential neighborhood near Old County Road in Templeton near the middle school, Twelve Oaks Drive and the exterior of Doce Robles Winery, Larry Moore Park, York Mountain Road and the new Epoch Winery where York Mountain Winery used to be, and best of all, an afternoon on Moonstone Beach yesterday. I could write several blog posts on most of these, but time limits me. I have written about some of these experiences on other sites, and I’ll share with you how to find them, as well as some photos now.

Looking Out at Ocean at Moonstone Beach

I took over 200 photos at Moonstone Beach yesterday. I put some of the best of them into my post “A Rejuvenating Walk on the Moonstone Beach Boardwalk.” That had ten of the best of those photos. Unfortunately the host decided to delete all but the first photo in every single post on the site, and they mangled the one they kept. So there’s really not much to see there now.

Moving backwards to my York Mountain Road adventures, I started walking on the west end of the road and found out it had turned into a road between a couple of construction zones where the owners of the new Epoch Estates Wines are building. This is how the tasting room exterior looks now.

Epoch Estates Tasting Room

The old barn that was behind the York Mountain Tasting Room has also been replaced with a brand new barn using some recycled materials from the old barn. I was allowed to look inside and meet Sam, one of the draft horses.

Sam at Epoch Estate Wines

Walking through Larry Moore Park was a very sad experience. It is brown and dry, like most unirrigated places in Paso Robles. Very little maintenance appears to be happening, and vandalism is rampant. One picnic table had been moved into the creek bed. The photo below also shows the effect of the drought and the lack of maintenance.

Chair Under Tree At Larry Moore Park

I normally walk Twelve Oaks Drive around sundown because I’m seeing a gorgeous sunset I want to photograph on my way home and I’m not sure it will still be there in the extra few minutes it takes to get home. It’s a pretty walk past the Doce Robles vineyards, and the vines reflect the sun at this time of night, as you can see below.

Vineyards on Twelve Oaks Drive in January

I didn’t see much I want to share from the Templeton neighbood I walked, so I’ll move to the Oakdale wineries. I want to cover them in more detail in subsequent posts, but for now I’ll just show a couple of photos. I had permission to walk the grounds at Shale Oak Winery after the employees had gone home. The photo below was taken as I walked the path beside the oak forest behind the winery that leads out to the parking lot and main patio.

Path Behind Shale Oak Winery

I next visited the grounds of Red Soles Winery across the street. I walked up the hill past the vineyards just as the moon was rising (see photo)

Moon Rising on Oakdale Road on the Way to Red Soles Winery

The tasting room is at the top. I was met by the dog you see near the door of the tasting room. He insisted I shake his hand. He was very friendly and wanted to play. The photo I took of the tasting room is below. It was closed by the time I got there.

Front View of Red Soles Tasting Room

Last in this post, but certainly not least, was a very enjoyable walk around Halter Ranch. I found out about it the day before my visit because of a painting I saw at Studios on the Park while I was looking at the new Lighten Up exhibit. Below is a photo of my husband with the covered bridge at Halter Ranch behind him.

Kosta in Front of Covered Bridge at Halter Ranch

I hope you’ve enjoyed following me around on these walks. I hope to add more details to some of them in future posts. The problem with these photo walks is that when you take too many in a row, there’s not enough time to write about them immediately. Stay tuned.